Intermountain Press Release

Salt Lake City—As one of the country's leading pioneers in preventive medicine, Frank Yanowitz, M.D., has long been considered a 'hall of fame' clinician by his patients and colleagues at LDS Hospital. But now it's official - Dr. Yanowitz, medical director and co-founder of the Intermountain Health & Fitness Institute at LDS Hospital - truly is a hall of fame doctor.

Dr. Yanowitz is among 14 healthcare pioneers from throughout the country who are the first inductees into the National Wellness Revolution Hall of Fame. Dr. Yanowitz and the other "wellness revolutionaries" were recently honored during an induction ceremony in Las Vegas, which was attended by more than 5,000 of the nation's health and wellness professionals.

The Wellness Revolution Hall of Fame is reserved for individuals who have made significant contributions to wellness, changing the world for the better one person or patient at a time. "Members of the Hall of Fame have helped tens of millions of people lead happier, healthier, and longer lives. Their contributions and accomplishments serve as an inspiration to future generations," says wellness author Paul Zane Pilzer, who emceed the induction ceremony.

Other inductees include Tod Cooperman, M.D., founder of consumerlab.com; Russ Reiss, M.D., cardiothoracic surgeon and stem cell researcher; J.I. Rodale, founder of Rodale Press (Men's Health, Prevention magazines); Geoff Tabin, M.D., ophthalmologist and founder of The Himalayan Cataract Project; Paul Wenner, chef and founder of Gardenburger; Peter and Kathie Davis, executives and founders of IDEA and ACE; Steve Demos, founder of SILK Soymilk; Jill Kinney, founder of Club One and Clubsource; Joseph Mercola, D.O., executive and founder of Mercola.com; and Carl F. Rehnborg, creator of Nutrilite.

Long-time Wellness Advocate
Dr. Yanowitz has been an advocate of wellness and preventive medicine, long before the movement became popular. The idea that disease and illness may be prevented or minimized through diet, exercise and regular screenings long before it lands a person in the hospital excited him as a young physician. Dr. Yanowitz says it made a lot of sense more than 30 years ago - and makes even more sense today.

To emphasize the importance of preventive medicine, Dr. Yanowitz shares a story with all of his fourth-year medical students - a story that was told to him early in his career:

It was graduation day at Harvard Medical School, and the top student, Michael, was walking along the Charles River with his favorite professor. Suddenly, a drowning man crying for help came floating down the river. Michael jumped into the water, pulled the man above water after he had gone under for the third time, dragged him, unconscious, to the shore, and applied closed-chest cardiac massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation - until finally the victim regained consciousness. Michael was elated to have had this opportunity to shine in the eyes of his teacher, and his professor congratulated him on a job well done as the ambulance arrived to take away the victim.

Wet and exhausted, Michael continued walking with his teacher until a second victim crying for help came floating down the river. Again, Michael jumped in to the rescue and brought the victim back to consciousness on the shore. Incredibly, this happened again and again until, when the seventh victim came floating down the river, an exasperated Michael turned to his professor and said: "I know I'm a doctor dedicated to helping people, but I just can't keep this up anymore!" "Then," replied his professor, "why don't you run ahead upstream and stop whoever is pushing these unfortunate people off the bridge?"

"That's what preventive medicine is all about," Dr. Yanowitz says with a smile. "In short, we help people reach their healthiest potential."

The Intermountain Health & Fitness Institute at LDS Hospital is one of the premier preventive medicine centers in the country. Founded more than 25 years ago by Dr. Yanowitz and colleagues at LDS Hospital, the Health and Fitness Institute assesses and manages health and lifestyle risk factors for chronic disease with an emphasis on the prevention of cardiovascular disease. It was at the Health & Fitness Institute where Utah businessman Jon Huntsman first discovered that he had prostate cancer.

Strong Connection Between Diet, Exercise and Disease
Dr. Yanowitz's first encounter with preventive medicine and wellness came in 1971 when he entered the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas. Unlike the patients of most cardiologists, the patients Dr. Yanowitz saw in San Antonio were extremely healthy. As jet pilots, they were some of the healthiest and most fit individuals in the nation. They were required to see Dr. Yanowitz on a regular basis just to maintain their flying qualifications, and they were required to report even the slightest abnormality in their physical conditions. Dr. Yanowitz was given virtually an unlimited budget to investigate the pilots' condition and to work with them to maintain their flying fitness. This gave him a unique preview of the effects of diet and exercise on health.

"It was there," he reflects today, "that I began to see the very earliest stages of heart disease - long before I would normally encounter these patients in a typical hospital setting." This experience taught him a lot about the connection between diet, exercise, and disease.

After serving in the Air Force, Dr. Yanowitz accepted a position as a cardiologist at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City and as an instructor at the University of Utah School of Medicine. The first thing he noticed when he came to Utah was the need for a specialized cardiac rehabilitation program to work with patients following heart surgery. Not surprisingly, Dr. Yanowitz has had his own wellness transformation. In 1978, at age 37, while teaching high school students how to use a sphygmomanometer, one of the students took his blood pressure, whereupon Dr. Yanowitz was shocked to see an unexpectedly high reading. He had the student repeat the test again and again, in front of the entire class, to confirm the results. That night he realized the irony of his developing an interest in wellness when he himself was overweight, sedentary, out of shape, and now had dangerously high blood pressure. He began a regular program of improving his diet, taking medication to lower his blood pressure, and exercise. Within a year he was running 40 to 50 miles a week and doing 10K and half marathons.

Today, at age 67, although never athletic as a child or in college, Dr. Yanowitz has completed four marathons, runs 10 to 15 miles each week, mountain bikes, road bikes, hikes, skis, and snowshoes. Dr. Yanowitz's curriculum vitae includes 80 publications and 18 major research projects. He has written a full-length book about coronary heart disease prevention. He was the first chairperson of the Utah Governor's Council on Physical Fitness.

He has personally affected the lives of tens of thousands of patients, but Dr. Yanowitz lights up the most when he talks about the groups of medical students assigned for one month tours of duty at the Health & Fitness Institute -the cardiologists of tomorrow - who will hopefully go forth from his tutelage dedicated to preventing heart disease and chronic illness rather than just treating its symptoms.